What Is Comic Market?

Comic Market, often known as “Comike”, has the official name of Dojinshi Sokubaikai, meaning an exhibition and sales event of coterie magazines. It is not a commercially produced event but an event organized and managed by volunteers in order to sell coterie magazines.

Coterie magazines are self-published by volunteers, and these volunteers include not only amateurs but also manga writers who are currently active on commercial publications but their participation does not involve commercial publishers.

In recent years such volunteers include entertainers such as singers you see on TV.

A large part of the exhibition consists of manga and novels that feature established characters or settings of popular anime, a type of works called “fan art” in Japan, art by fans.

In addition to this the market offers original works of manga and novels, or even research papers on personal interest.

The market was first held in 1975, and the event has grown today in 2017 to mobilize 550,000 visitors twice annually in summer and winter.

It is perhaps one of the largest events held for interested members of the community in Japan, organized for non-commercial purposes.

These days even TV stations and publishers have started to participate.

Coterie Magazine Events Other than Comike

Many events other than Comike that sell coterie magazines or feature anime and manga are held in other regions and other times of the year.

Nikoniko Super Conference: A subculture festival organized by DWANGO Co., Ltd. It doesn’t offer a coterie magazine marketplace, but the festival focuses on elements of Japanese culture such as anime, manga, even kabuki or sumo wrestling.

Comic City: This is the largest coterie magazine event in Osaka region.

COMIC1: It is held in spring and scale of the event is next to that of Comike.

Countless events are held other than what I listed here if we include small ones, but Comike tops them all by its scale.

Services at Comike, however leave a room for improvement, for example foreign language information is not available for foreign visitors. This is because the event is organized by volunteers for the people with similar interests.

But on the other hand visitors can enjoy excitement of the event and real communication with attending people as much as they like.

About the author

It has been over 40 years of reading manga in the deep world of manga.
Japan’s manga has an endlessly wide variety of genres.
I will be recommending special manga for you to read from such infinite amount of works.

Our website provides comprehensive information about Japan! Get an insider's view about the Japanese culture, language, cuisine, history, where-to, how-to...all you need to know to prepare yourself for a trip to or a life in Japan!